


Ladybug Print

by Wintermoth



Series: The Adventures of Adrienbug and Chat Mari [2]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, Gen, HERE WE GO WITH THE SECOND INSTALLMENT, Please enjoy these cute dorks being cute, Powerswap AU, Sorry for the long wait, The Adventures of Adrienbug and Chat Mari
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-23
Updated: 2016-01-23
Packaged: 2018-05-15 19:17:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,413
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5796649
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wintermoth/pseuds/Wintermoth
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ladybug has an unusual request. Good thing Marinette loves a challenge.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ladybug Print

Chat Noire’s foot slipped against the wet shingles and nearly topped off the roof in surprise. Catlike reflexes kicked in and she landed on all fours, bounding forward a few feet to the nearest flat surface, which happened to be a parapet. She straightened up and rounded on her partner, frowning at him.  
  
Ladybug landed beside her, a bemused expression on his face.  
  
“You what?” she demanded.  
  
“I’d like you to redesign my suit,” he repeated. He held up his arms, which were ladybug-print on the top and black on the undersides, along with most of his suit. “I mean, this one is pretty neat and its very good for stealth but—”  
  
Chat Noire held up one clawed finger to silence him. “You. Want me. To redesign your suit.”  
  
“Is there an echo out here?”  
  
“Why?” she asked. “What’s wrong with your current suit?”  
  
“Nothing’s _wrong_ , exactly, I just…I don’t know, I think it’d be better if there was more color on it.”  
  
Chat Noire blinked several times then looked him and up and down twice before settling her eyes on his face, which was bright with hope. “You’re serious. You want me—why me? Wait, no. Who else could do it?”

“Edna Mode?”

She rolled her eyes. “Are you sure you want to do this?”  
  
Ladybug nodded. “One hundred percent. You did a good job re-designing yours so I figured you could come up with something better than me. My kwami and I discussed it and as long as you stick to a few guidelines, she can do it.”  
  
She folded her arms. “What guidelines?”  
  
“Well, it has to stick with the ladybug theme, obviously, so only red and black. It has to cover from here—” he tapped the neckline of his suit “—down. It has to be aerodynamic and convenient for flight. The mask can’t be any smaller than it is. There has to be a place for my baton to hook and a belt. Other than that…anything goes. Personally, I’d like there to be more color.”  
  
Chat Noire twisted her lips thoughtfully and sank down into a crouch, staring across the cityscape. Ladybug knelt down next to her. She could do it, she knew she could, it wasn’t a question of her skills or lack of time to do it in. She was just worried she wouldn’t be able to come up with anything he’d approve of. Glancing his way again, she let hummed pensively.  
  
“What do you mean by ‘more color’?” she asked.  
  
“I mean, more red.”  
  
“More ladybug print?”  
  
Ladybug nodded. “Exactly, but I’d still like there to be some black. Please don’t stick me in a solid ladybug print.”  
  
Chat Noire laughed, shaking her head. “No, that wouldn’t look good on you. If I add more red, though, you’ll stand out.”  
  
“Well, that’s a good thing, right? With how things have been working, it’s better if the akuma keep their eyes on me than you.” Ladybug pointed out. “They’re more likely to pay attention to the red than the black. Besides, I think stealth is more your thing, minou.”  
  
She hummed again in agreement. There were definite tactical benefits to having her partner, the Distraction™, in a brighter getup. Black looked good with his tan complexion but so, too, did the red so there was no need to worry about that. He would still need to seem intimidating, of course, which would be difficult if he was covered in polka dots. Finding a balance between the two colors would be a challenge. As would designing an outfit for someone she would have no references for except her memories.  
  
Good thing Marinette loved a challenge.  
  
“Alright,” she finally conceded. “I’ll do it.”  
  
He let out an excited whoop and did a backflip off the parapet, landing on the slanted roof behind him with ease.  
  
“But—”  
  
“Thank you!”  
  
“Bug!” She held up her hand, furrowing her brows. “You have to give me a few days. I mean it. I won’t have you buzzing around while I’m trying to work. Pun not intended,” she added when she saw the mischief spark in his eyes. She slid off the parapet and straightened. “I’ll bring you some designs, colored, and you can pick which one you like.”  
  
Her partner rocked back and forth on the balls of his feet and hopped up and down once in excitement. “Awesome!”  
  
“And you’re not to tell anyone that I’m doing this. Ever.”  
  
Ladybug raised his hand. “Bug’s honor. Not a word. Thank you so much, minou!”  
  
Plagg wasn’t quite as enthusiastic. Actually, he was rather opposed to the whole idea and he couldn’t believe Tikki was letting one of his cats have a say in what one of her bugs wore. Marinette didn’t really see what the big deal was and told Plagg if he didn’t like it then he didn’t have to participate. And he didn’t, not even once, over the next two days. Not even so much as a snide remark. She assumed it was just a kwami thing and dismissed it. Ladybug asked for her help, that was all the permission she needed.  
  
Marinette had plenty of experience with polka dots and she knew how to make them work. Her designs over the next two days involved polka dots ranging, when scaled, from the size of her thumbnail to the size of cricket balls. She was favoring the larger spots as the smaller ones would inevitably become too numerous and cluttered or were just too cutesy for a hero. Red and black complimented each other very well but some of her designs had too much of one or the other and she scrapped them.  
  
Alya came by once without warning on the first day and it was only Plagg’s sharp hearing that allowed Marinette enough time to hide the incriminating sketches before her best friend burst through the trap door. Ever since learning of their existence, Alya had been quite ecstatic about the superheroes and Marinette knew her well enough to see that this was quickly spiraling into the category of ‘obsession’. She wasn’t quite sure how to feel about it but there was a definite potential of danger brewing. Her best friend couldn’t know she was Chat Noire. Even if Plagg hadn’t been firm on the tell no one rule, she wouldn’t have done it. It wasn’t safe for anyone, especially Alya. She was just an ordinary girl and it pained Marinette to make the distinction because she wasn’t one herself anymore.  
  
“Marinette! You’ve got to see this!” Alya shoved her phone into Marinette’s face before she could even ask what was up. Marinette blinked, eyes adjusting to the sudden proximity, and she took the phone from her friend’s hands. Then nearly dropped it.  
  
It was them!  
  
Well, Chat Noire and Ladybug, taken last night. The picture was blurry and there wasn’t much to see, just two black figures racing along a slanted rooftop that she knew was dangerously slick after the rain they’d had, and the only real indication they weren’t just two daredevils was the tail streaming out behind one of them and the triangles perched on top of their head. She had no idea when it had been taken or where but it was a hard reminder that people knew they were there and were watching.  
  
Ladybug’s new suit, whatever it may be, wouldn’t just make him more noticeable to the akumas. She hoped he realized that.  
  
Alya was waiting for a reaction. Marinette’s jaw dropped and she blurted out, “Ohmygosh! Is this _them_? How did you get this?!”  
  
Alya launched into her tale and Marinette spent the entire time feeling her stomach twisting into knots. Walking around at night trying to find danger so she could be there when the heroes arrived—of all the idiotic… Things had only just begun and her friend was already in too deep.  
  
“—starting a blog.”  
  
Marinette blinked and shook her head, taken aback. “You what?!”  
  
She nodded eagerly. “Yeah! Everyone’s curious about them and I thought it’d be really cool to make a blog where I can post pictures and videos. Compile evidence and resources and all that stuff. Maybe figure out where these akumus—”  
  
_Akumas_ , Marinette wanted to correct her but she didn’t say a word. She didn’t try to discourage her, either, because she knew that this was the kind of thing that, just a few weeks ago, she would have encouraged Alya to do. Journalism and blogging were her passions and when she got excited about something, this is what she did.

Marinette didn’t have to help her, though. “Just be careful,” she pleaded.  
  
“Oh, I will,”Alya promised and Marinette had a sinking feeling that she would do nothing of the sort. She just hoped Alya would never recognize her face beneath the mask. …Maybe Ladybug being brighter would be a good thing.  
  
She felt yet another twinge of regret. Alya was always supportive of her designs and she loved looking at them, even when they weren’t very good. She would love to have a second opinion about a few things since Plagg really did seem determined to keep out of it, but Alya would lose her mind if she saw them and Marinette would have to admit to knowing Ladybug. Alya might put two and two together and…just, no.  
  
Between Alya and her parents, Marinette didn’t have much time to work in peace during the day so she ended up doing a lot of her sketching late at night. Ladybug didn’t contact her once and it was weird not going out to meet him but he’d agreed to handle things by himself for a few days, barring an emergency, to give her time to work in peace. She could’ve asked him to fly to Italy for pizza and he would’ve done it.  
  
By the third morning after agreeing to take on the job, Marinette had three designs she was satisfied with, all colored and ready to be presented to her partner. She held them up for Plagg to inspect but the kwami turned away from them with a quiet, ‘hmph.’  
  
“Plaaaaaggg.” Marinette leaned around so she could see his face and pouted. After a moment, Plagg peeked one eye open, saw her expression and sighed irritably.  
  
“It’s not my place to judge,” he insisted. “That boy will like them, I’m sure.”  
  
“How can you say that if you haven’t seen them?”  
  
Plagg gave her a flat look. “You really haven’t noticed?”  
  
Marinette cocked her head. “Noticed what?”  
  
“Oh boy,” he muttered. “Are you going to contact him now, or what?”  
  
After setting her chair firmly over the trapdoor to prevent any sudden intrusions, she transformed into Chat Noire and climbed up to her bed. She settled herself in the far corner where he wouldn’t be able to see any part of her room and she could transform back quickly without being seen by anyone trying to come into her room. She opened her communicator and called him. She knew from experience that, on his end, his miraculous would begin to tingle against his skin and his kwami would feel it, too. This form of communication was risky and was only to be done when necessary. They had a rule: let it ring for one minute then hang up. The other could call back as soon as possible. If it was an emergency then they should let it keep ringing until the other answered.  
  
It took him ten minutes to call her back and he was outside when he did. She could see a dark rooftop behind him and the wind blew his hair around his face. _“Bonjour, minou!”_  
  
“ _Bonjour_. I’m finished.”  
  
His face lit up. _“Really? Do you want to meet now? I’ve got time.”_  
  
“I was just going to give them to you tonight.”  
  
_“But if we meet up now then I can get it switched over before tonight,”_ he pointed out. _“I’m excited. Please, please.”_ And just to make sure she couldn’t refuse, he gave her a wide-eyed, pleading look.  
  
Chat Noire sighed. “That’s not fair. That is completely unfair and you know it, but fine. Fine! Our rooftop. Half an hour.”  
  
_“So long?”_  
  
“I need to make an appearance around my family before I disappear. Half an hour or tonight. Your choice.”  
  
_“Half an hour it is. See you then. And thank you!”_  
  
Marinette thanked her lucky stars that her parents didn’t need her to help out this morning and they accepted her announcement that she was going to the park with smiles and orders to be safe and have fun. She ate breakfast quickly and placed the pages with her designs in a simple blue folder. She would have to be careful on her run over to their rooftop.  
  
She transformed in an alley near her house and tucked the folder into her belt. Then she scaled the walls by way of climbing up ledges and rebounding from one side to the other.  
  
With the exception of akuma attacks, Parisians were unaccustomed to seeing either hero out in the open in broad daylight and she had no idea how people would react, but she knew she wouldn’t go unnoticed. Sure enough, whenever she used her yoyo to swing herself across streets, cries of shock and shouts of her name echoed after her. Once or twice she stopped to wave at someone who’d called her name excitedly before racing off again.  
  
_This is good,_ she thought. _People like me._  
  
Ladybug, of course, was already waiting when she arrived. He was sitting in the shadow of the pink chimney, which was even more outlandish in the daytime, so as not to draw attention to himself. He smiled brilliantly at her when she touched down and jumped to his feet.  
  
“Eager, are we?” she teased.  
  
He nodded. “Pawsitively.”  
  
“Start that and I will take these right back home,” she warned, angling the hip with the folder on it away from him.  
  
Ladybug’s eyes widened and he placed his hands behind his back, hunching his shoulders meekly. “I’ll be good.”

She eyed him suspiciously for perhaps a moment longer then necessary then reached for the folder. He perked up immediately, like a puppy presented with a new toy, and patiently waited for her to place it in his hands. He then opened it eagerly, pulling out the three sheets of paper, and slowly sat down.

Ladybug carefully flipped through them, eyes wide, and mouth open in either shock or awe. She couldn’t tell. Each paper had three different sketches of each outfit: front, back, and side, along with a few detailed sketches of smaller areas like the gloves to show how his Miraculous would look against his hand. He went through them once, quickly, then again more slowly and she watched his eyes dart around as he took in every single detail. Chat Noire fidgeted in front of him, waiting.

“Th-these are amazing,” he finally stammered. Chat Noire bit her lip. “Really! You’re good at this, and I know what I’m talking about,” he added with a grin at her though there was something almost…bitter underlying his words. She couldn’t imagine why and decided she must have imagined it.

She beamed at the praise. “So, you like them?”

“Heck yeah!” He was overjoyed and she felt her cheeks reddening. “I don’t know how to even choose…. Which one’s your favorite?”

“Well, I like them all…”

“Yeah, but you have to have a favorite.” Ladybug prompted.

“Well….” Chat Noire crouched down next to him, using one hand for balance and the other to leaf through the sheets until she found last design she’d worked on. She’d been nearly out of ideas and had decided to go for something simple. She’d ended up liking it a lot more than she thought she would.

His current suit had ladybug print on the back, shoulders and the tops of the arms with black covering the rest. With the exception of his back, she’d simply reversed everything. This design had a black collar and the color continued across his upper chest, over his shoulders, and down the tops of his arms, extending clear down his fingers. The black ended on the undersides of his fingers where his palms began. A black belt rested at the waist with a clasp for him to hook his baton to while in flight. The boots, black, came up just past his ankles. The rest of the suit was ladybug print, the spots roughly the size of tennis balls. She’d left the mask as it was, three dots around his eyes and one in the center, each side a perfect mirror of the other.

He hummed, looking the design over again. “So minou, do you think you could handle seeing me in this almost every day?”

“It’d be pretty hard not to see you in this,” she quipped. “You’re going to stand out. A lot. That reminds me, I know for a fact that people got pictures of us the other night. You could only tell it was us because—” she gestured to her hears and wiggled them for good measure “—but if you make the switch, people are definitely going to notice us more.”

Ladybug shrugged. “I don’t mind. People already notice us as it is. You didn’t answer my question.”

“Yes,” she said. “I think I can handle it. I’m more worried about the cosplayers who’re already hard at work being unable to.”

He barked a laugh, shaking his head. He gave the other two designs one final look then nodded. “I’ll go with this one.”

“Are you sure?”

“Mmhmm.” He handed her the folder and the other two sheets, looking down at the chosen design again. “This is going to be awesome. You’re really awesome at this, did I mention that?”

Chat Noire turned her face away so he wouldn’t see the embarrassed blush on her cheeks. “You did. And you owe me, you know.”

“Of course,” he agreed. “Name your price.”

“Price? No, I don’t want money. This wasn’t a commission, it was a favor.” She was a bit horrified at the prospect of taking money from him, to be honest.

He furrowed his brow in confusion. “Then what do you want?”

“Tit for tat. You found out something about me now I get one thing about you.”

Ladybug smirked. “Alright. Let me think.”

Chat Noire busied herself by tucking the two rejected designs back into the safety of her folder. She would have to burn them or shred them, there was no way she could risk them going into the trash. Or maybe she could keep them? She’d have to find a safe place to store them and a good excuse in case they were ever found—

“I like fencing.”

She looked at him in surprise. “Really? You any good?”

He nodded proudly. “Award winning.”

“I guess that explains your fighting style.” Nodding once, she pushed herself up. “Alright, then. I guess that’s that. I’ll see you here tonight?”

Ladybug jumped to his feet and carefully folded the piece of paper in half, then in half again, and unzipped one of the pockets in the stomach of his suit. Chat Noire smacked her forehead.

“Crap! I forgot about the pockets!”

He laughed, tucking the paper inside for safekeeping. “Don’t worry about it, we can still add them. Besides, they’re hard to see, no wonder you forgot.”

She smiled ruefully. “Make sure your kwami has a good look at it. I worked hard.”

“Don’t worry, she won’t miss a single detail,” he assured her. “We’ve both been pretty eager.”

“My kwami was a bit, er—he was surprised you asked me to do this. And that she’s letting you get away with it.”

Ladybug cocked his head to the side. “Really? She was all for it.”

_WHAT?!_ Plagg yelped and Chat Noire pressed her lips together. She shrugged her shoulders in response and pulled out her yo-yo. “See you tonight, Bug!”

“Thanks again!” he called after her as she swung away.

Thirteen hours later, Ladybug strutted around the rooftop in his new suit with all the air and confidence of a model and Chat Noire laughed so hard she ended up on her hands and knees. The following morning, there were no less than thirty different pictures circulating social media, a few even appearing on the news, of Chat Noire and Ladybug, in all his spotted glory.

**Author's Note:**

> I actually have the design for this on my tablet. I need someone to properly draw it out.


End file.
